Alphy's Challenge Read online

  Evernight Publishing ®

  www.evernightpublishing.com

  Copyright© 2014 Tigertalez

  ISBN: 978-1-77233-088-5

  Cover Artist: Sour Cherry Designs

  Editor: Karyn White

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be used or reproduced electronically or in print without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.

  This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, and places are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  DEDICATION

  I have so many to thank for their help and support, but I want to dedicate this book to C.L. Scholey. Connie, you have given me the most support. Your advice and encouragement inspired me to push forward and you were there through every challenge.

  ALPHY’S CHALLENGE

  Kaska Pack, 1

  Tigertalez

  Copyright © 2014

  Chapter One

  Gale Brooks screamed as her brother, Paul Brooks, stumbled and fell, sliding across the forest floor. His lips were swollen, and she could see a dark red trickle of blood seeping from the corner of his mouth. His left eye was swelling shut, and she could see by some of his faulty movements that his depth perception was off kilter as he struggled to watch for the next blow the ruthless goons tormented him with. His arms and wrists were swelling and bruising from trying to block the many hits and kicks his foes instigated. Gale could clearly see by how he couldn’t put pressure on them that they caused him great pain. Afraid his arms or wrists were broken, Gale sobbed out another scream. “Stop!”

  But her cries were ignored as the taunts and name-calling surrounded them.

  The lead enforcer’s hands tightened painfully around her arms. “Fag!” he growled over her shoulder.

  “Queer!” another one sneered.

  “Poofing fairy!” the third one spat. The others laughed at the sound of the insult.

  Another heavy kick slammed into Paul’s stomach. “Oof.”

  His grunts were feeding the violent frenzy from the surrounding bigots, and Gale could see his breath was labored as he wheezed out a wet cough. She didn’t know how much more he could take. She and her younger brother, Paul, were fully human, from their mother’s first marriage. They couldn’t survive as many injuries as shifters could. They were far weaker than the shifters who were attacking him. In the back of her mind, Gale hoped her brother could just black out like all those people did in the movies. He was injured enough. He was obviously in enough pain. Why doesn’t his brain just allow him to escape the pain?

  Gale futilely struggled to pull herself away from the enforcer who held her. She wanted to run to her brother and throw herself over him to shield him. She felt like she was suffocating from her intense sobs, which would have dropped her to her knees if she wasn’t being held up. She also fought her desire to vomit every time she heard the hollow thuds to his chests and the cracks from what sounded like breaking bones.

  Earlier this morning, their family had been called in to the alpha of their herd. The alpha had somehow found out Paul was gay and had ordered his parents to send him away. In the shifter world, to disobey your alpha was a severe and punishable offense. Gale didn’t expect him to refuse the alpha. She knew their stepfather Tom had the rest of the family to think about, and had to do what was best for them. Tom had asked the alpha for the rest of the day to make some preparations, to which the alpha had agreed, clearly quite pleased with thinking he won.

  Even though the thought of sending her brother away had made her sick, Gale had known Paul loved the family as much as she did and didn’t want to cause them any trouble. As soon as they had shut the door to their home, however, Tom had ordered everyone to start packing, but quietly, while he made some phone calls.

  Their vehicle had been in a garage that was connected to the house. They had been able to easily pack the van without being noticed, so long as they were quiet. Tom had had several calls to make, so Paul had done the heavy lifting. She knew Paul didn’t mind really. He wasn’t a twink or slim even. He was athletic and tall even though he was now sixteen, and he had told her how much he liked providing for and protecting the family. He wanted to be just like Tom.

  Some of Paul’s stuff had been put in his sister’s car. They had figured it would save room in the van and look like he was being sent packing. Gale still lived at home while she attended a local college, but she also had a job and had bought her own beat-up rust bucket.

  They had been doing great with all the prep until they were ready to leave. Her car had been stuffed to the brim, as well as the family’s van. When everyone had been ready to go a mere two and a half hours after the alpha gave his order, she and Paul had headed out to the car. That was when they had noticed the three enforcers for the herd. Paul had ordered for her to run back inside before they snatched him up and dragged him into the forest across the street.

  They were shifters, so their strength was stronger than normal human’s. They’d had no problems running while carrying him as he tried to fight them off. Instead of running for safety, Gale had screamed and run after them. They hadn’t stopped until they got far enough into the woods so any cries for help wouldn’t be heard.

  Now more hollow thuds could be heard as they kicked at his stomach and back. Paul’s grunts of pain continued. How much longer of this could he take? A shot rang out, causing her ears to ring loudly. Gale was stunned by it for a moment. One of the enforcers was on the ground not too far from Paul, holding his leg where a bloom of red was growing. Her hearing slowly started to come back to the sounds of yelling, and shouting.

  The bruising vise-grip around her upper arms vanished, allowing her to drop to the ground. Gale didn’t pay any attention to what was being shouted around her. She frantically and clumsily crawled over to her brother. She could see he couldn’t move. Gale’s dirt and pine needle covered hands shook as she held them over her brother, uncertain where she could touch him without further hurting him.

  Another shot rang out, ringing her ears some more. She looked around and saw the two enforcers run over to grab their bleeding friend, and take off into the forest.

  Gale looked back down into the pain-filled bloody and swollen face of her brother. She watched as Paul’s body started to weaken and relax. Tom’s horrified and definitely concerned face appeared over them, holding her father’s shotgun. “Paul, stay with me, kiddo. I’ve got ya!” Gale could visibly see relief flood Paul as he finished slipping into darkness.

  When she followed Tom as he had carried her brother’s bloody unrecognizable form out of the forest, she had to stop by a tree and empty her stomach first.

  Now Gale was focusing on the dirty rear bumper of her parents’ van in front of her, futilely fighting hard not to cry while anxiously steering her car through the city streets to the hospital. The steering wheel, slicked with the sweat from her palms and tears that she had already wiped away, slipped in her clenched hands. Hooking her fingers around the middle of the wheel, she righted the steering then wiped her hands over her black Levi’s.

  Gale’s heart felt like it was in her throat, and all she wanted to do was wail with grief at the injustice of it all. Those bastards! she thought. She had never felt this kind of fear before, the kind where you fear for your life and the lives of those around you.

  Gale turned on her blinker, and turned, following her parents into the parking lot of the local hospital. They pulled through the emergency room entrance while Gale continued around to the visitors parking. Pulling into a spot, she surprised herself with actually par
king between the little white lines. As soon as she stopped, she turned off the engine and tried to take a deep breath, only it came out as a sob when she exhaled.

  She jumped when there was a tapping on her window. Wiping her tears away and trying to sniff through her clogged nose, she looked to see who it was. Her mother was there, looking as distressed as Gale felt. Right, family first, freak later. She nodded to her mom and grabbed her purse, keys, and cell, and opened the door. Her mother was working on getting one of the twins out of the car. They were two two-year-olds. They were more than a handful at the best of times, and positively beastly at the worst, but she loved them as much as she did Paul.

  Her mother had her youngest brother, Danny, out, so Gale reached in for her sister, Abby. They closed up and locked both the car and the van, then rushed inside.

  Gale was able to pull herself together enough to entertain the twins while her parents filled out paperwork and talked to the medical staff. Other patients sat in the waiting room they were sitting in, phones chirped on their bases, and the smell of antiseptic surrounded her. She tried hard to concentrate on her siblings as her parents answered questions about her brother’s medical history and his attack.

  Gale looked up at her mother’s approach.

  “Gale, we’re going back to see him, will you please stay out here with the twins?”

  Gale couldn’t trust her voice, so she just nodded her answer and wiped away the fresh tears that escaped once again down her face. Turning back to the tots, she saw Abby tilt her head slightly, looking at her. She ventured closer and placed her hands on the side of each of Gale’s cheek.

  “Okay, sis? Okay?” Abby’s small voice was clear but concerned. The look of concern that her two-year-old sister had drew a smile to Gale’s face. But really, what could she tell the child? Everything wasn’t okay. Instead of answering right away, Gale wrapped her arms around the tot and hugged her. The action brought her spirits up enough to calm her.

  It felt like forever before Tom returned to fetch her and the twins, and by then it was dark outside. Abby was the first one to see Tom and ran to cheerfully greet her daddy. He picked her up and carried her as Gale picked up Danny and followed Tom.

  “They’re moving him into a private room for the night for observation,” he explained as he led them through the hospital corridors. “He’s stable for now, but he’s permanently lost his left eye.”

  Gale squeezed Danny closer for comfort. Unable to say anything, she continued to follow in silence. Once they reached the room, Tom put Abby down, and Gale did the same with Danny. Tom addressed the two tots. “Ok, you two, your big brother got hurt so he’s trying to rest. I want you two to help him. Can you help him?”

  Both heads bobbed up and down. Abby’s longer bright brown curls lightly bounced with the action. “Thank you.” Tom hugged them. Lowering his voice to a whisper, he looked at them one more time before showing them in. “We need to be very quiet. Now go find Mommy.”

  After the tots disappeared through the doorway, Tom strode up and took Gale in a hug. She didn’t resist the act of comfort. “Thank you, Gale, for helping with them.” Tom pulled back to look into her watery eyes. He continued to talk as he wiped away her new flow of tears. “How are you doing?”

  Gale sniffed. “I’m okay, I think.”

  “Yeah?” Tom took her in his arms again as he spoke low to her. “Once they release Paul, we’ll leave town. The alpha shouldn’t bother us if we go far enough. We aren’t that important to him. I hate to have to ask you this, but your mom and I will need help caring for Paul.”

  “Of course I’ll help. I’ll do everything I can. We’re family.”

  Tom kissed the side of her head as he pulled back and keeping an arm wrapped around her shoulder, led her into the room.

  As she entered the room, she took the time to take in everything she saw. Her brother was unconscious, his right eye swollen almost shut, and a heavy amount of gauze over the other eye. His face was bruised, swollen, and made his looks unrecognizable. I.V. dripped through a clear tube next to a pain pump, and both wrists were in splints. Her mother held Abby up and helped her lean over the bed to place a kiss on his head. Gale heard Abby’s loud whisper, “Better now.” Danny just stood quietly by the bed and observed everything.

  Walking further into the room, Gale pulled a chair closer to her brother, sat down, and delicately placed one hand under and one hand over Paul’s hand and silently hoped they could get far enough away that the alpha would leave them in peace to restart their lives.

  Chapter Two

  Ralph “Alphy” Kaska felt uncomfortable sitting in a chair in the hallway outside his old alpha’s office. He hadn’t seen the alpha, or this town, in several years. Since he’d first moved away when he turned old enough, he had only returned for major family events. Ever since he’d graduated from high school he, and the alpha, had known he was too dominant to be anything other than an alpha himself. It had been wearisome during his last couple years here, trying not to let his bear challenge the current alpha. Alphy liked the older shifter. He ran the sleuth well, and in no way had Alphy wanted to lead when he was so young. He had wanted to get out and travel, to see the world and experience things. It was the best way to earn experience to be a leader.

  At the time, he hadn’t had much money. He had been too young to be an alpha, but he did want to utilize his alpha skills, so he’d joined the military. He had been so good at it that he had been given his own unit in the Special Forces. Over the years, and in different identities, he had served in each branch, and he had been able to qualify in the Special Forces in each branch. He had been in the U.S. Navy Seals these past ten years, at least, until a missile strike that landed on them about a week ago. That had been painful, not the physical wounds, but the emotional ones. Those men had been his friends and family. They’d had his back in battle, and he’d had theirs. You couldn’t get a closer bond than that.

  The rescuing unit, first on the scene, was all shifter. They had recognized this as an opportunity for Alphy to start a new identity. If he stayed too much longer, his lack of aging would start to get noticed. He had been healing in a secret shifter shelter and was trying to figure out where to go when he’d gotten the news that his parents had been killed by a texting driver, and he had to come home to Oregon to take custody of his younger siblings, who were still under age.

  He had been an early child for the newly mated couple. His two younger siblings, Havana, who would be eighteen in a few weeks, and Reese, who had just turned fourteen, were many years younger than his fifty-four. Shifters could live for about five hundred years, so fifty-four was really young.

  Just as Alphy leaned his head back against the wall and gave a heavy sigh, a door opened.Alphy looked up to see the current beta step into the room. Alphy stood at attention, a habit that was so ingrained he didn’t even think about doing it.

  The beta closed the door and walked to him. The man knew he was much too alpha to show his neck so offered his hand, and Alphy took it. “I know you won’t be able to stay long, but it is good to see you again, Ralph. I’m very sorry about your loss.”

  Alphy found it hard to speak over the developing lump that was forming in his throat, so he nodded his thanks. He was toughened for sure, but to lose so many friends and family in just a matter of one week, well, there were limits to any man. He nodded his head again, fighting back the tears and tremors. “Thank you, sir.”

  The beta slightly inclined his head and released his hand. “Alpha Berry will be out in a moment. He’s finishing up an important call with a neighboring alpha, and then he’ll be right with you.” With one last shake of his hand, the beta turned and headed down the hall. Alphy stood there listening to the fading footsteps of the beta. Being a shifter granted him enhanced senses, senses that had saved him and his teammates more times than he could count. However, his ears were still not quite one hundred percent after the hit. He was still healing from many wounds. He would have been dead i
f he was human, and as it was, he still had more healing to do. He was constantly focusing on trying to regain his strengths and senses.

  The door opened, and a low baritone voice called him from his thoughts. “Captain Kaska.”

  Looking towards the sound of the summons, Alphy could see the alpha standing in the doorway. He was a tall man, not as tall as Alphy’s own six foot six inch frame, but his presence wasn’t any less. He was an older shifter of near four hundred years, but was still built like a bodybuilder.

  Alphy walked over to the man and greeted him with a smile. “Alpha Berry,” he said, then walked through the offered doorway. He sat down in a not uncomfortable, dark brown leather chair in front of a dark mahogany desk. The room wasn’t too large, but comfortable. His eyes followed the alpha as he made his way around the desk and sat in the brown suede chair behind it.

  “Your brother and sister are at home. I thought it would be best to get the official paperwork over with without subjecting them to it. My mate is with them. She thinks it would make them feel like property. After her longwinded lecture, I assured her I didn’t need convincing.” He chuckled, and Alphy gave an amused grunt and smiled. He remembered the alpha’s mate. She wasn’t a quiet one, and she had kept the alpha busy keeping her out of trouble, but she always did what she did with a good heart.

  “Thank you, I would have to agree with her. Just don’t tell her that.” They both shared a good chuckle.

  Alpha Berry leaned forward on his chair. “When was the last time you saw or spoke to your brother and sister? You parents said you frequently kept in touch via satellite feed and emails.”

  “Yes. I am very close to my family even though I couldn’t be here for them. I last saw them in person for my brother’s fourteenth birthday a few months back. Our parents loved to travel, so they always traveled to visit me. It worked best since I couldn’t spend as much time with them if I had been the one to visit them, and I was always working on one mission or the other so traveling elsewhere in between times was illogical.”